Pick Helldivers 2 if...
Your squad includes a PS5 player, or spans PS5, PC, and Xbox. You play together regularly - weekly rather than occasionally. You want a big-budget spectacle with an ongoing war campaign that changes between sessions. And your group finds friendly fire funny rather than infuriating, because you will be killing each other constantly. Full write-up: our Helldivers 2 review.
Pick Deep Rock Galactic if...
Your squad is on PC and Xbox. You play irregularly and want something you can return to cold. You want the cheaper option - it is significantly less expensive and goes on deep discount often, which is why it leads our budget picks. Or you want procedural variety and genuinely three-dimensional environments rather than set-piece combat.
If your squad spans all three platforms
Helldivers 2 is the answer, and has been since August 2025 - the Xbox version joined the existing PS5-and-PC pool, so a squad with a PS5, an Xbox, and a PC can finally play it together. Deep Rock Galactic still cannot do this; it keeps PlayStation in its own pool. If you want alternatives with the same reach, Diablo IV adds cross-progression on top of four-player co-op, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 covers all three with a co-op Zombies mode. Our crossplay hub has the verified list, and 4-player games ranks the wider field.
Difficulty and newcomers
Both scale difficulty, and both are approachable at their lower settings. The practical difference is that Helldivers 2's friendly fire punishes inexperience in a way Deep Rock's does not - a new player in Helldivers will accidentally kill teammates, which is either the best part of the game or a reason your friend stops playing. If you are introducing someone to co-op shooters, Deep Rock is the gentler entry point.
Session length
Deep Rock missions can be selected by expected length, including genuinely short ones, which suits a group with an hour. Helldivers 2 operations tend to run longer and the campaign layer encourages playing several in a row. For a group that can only get an hour together, Deep Rock fits better.
Classes and how they change the group dynamic
Deep Rock Galactic gives each player a fixed class - driller, engineer, gunner, scout - with tools nobody else has. One person zips around lighting caves, another builds platforms, another tunnels. That makes the squad genuinely interdependent, and it means a less confident player can be useful immediately by picking the class with the clearest job. Groups tend to settle into roles and keep them.
Helldivers 2 does the opposite: everyone has access to the same loadouts and stratagems, and you differentiate by what you bring to a given mission. It is more flexible and less structured, and it puts the coordination burden on communication rather than on class design. Neither approach is better, but they suit different groups - if your squad likes defined roles, Deep Rock will click faster.
What happens when only two of you show up
Worth planning for, because it happens to every group. Deep Rock scales its mission hazard to the party size and gives solo or duo players a support drone, so a short-handed night still works. Helldivers 2 also scales, but its heaviest enemy patrols and objective timers are tuned around a full squad, and a pair feels the difference more sharply. For groups whose attendance is unpredictable, that is another point for Deep Rock.
Cost over time
Both are one-off purchases with free content updates and optional cosmetics - neither requires a subscription and neither locks gameplay behind extra payments. The difference is the entry price: Deep Rock Galactic is consistently the cheaper of the two and discounts deeply and often, while Helldivers 2 holds closer to a premium price. For a group of four buying four copies, that gap multiplies by four, which is worth weighing before anyone commits. See our budget picks and the Steam page for buying advice.
